Washington Post: D.C. can require gun applicants to provide a ‘good reason’ for now
Ovetta Wiggins for The Washington Post reports:
A federal appeals court has ordered a stay of a judge’s ruling in a challenge to the District’s gun laws.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia temporarily blocked a decision made last month by U.S. District Judge Frederick J. Scullin Jr. that stopped the District from enforcing a key provision of its gun laws. That provision requires a person to state a “good reason” for carrying a weapon in order to obtain a permit from police….
Scullin ruled last year that the District’s long-standing ban on carrying firearms in public was unconstitutional. As a result, the D.C. Council reworked the law in September, but included a condition — known as the “good reason/proper reason” requirement — for obtaining a permit. Similar provisions exist in Maryland, New York and New Jersey.
Last month, Scullin said in a 23-page opinion that the condition “impinges on Plaintiffs’ Second Amendment right to bear arms,” because it fails to target dangerous people or specify how or where individuals carry weapons.
The appeals court said the temporary stay was intended to give it additional time to consider whether to block the lower court’s ruling.
Read the rest of the story at The Washington Post.
